From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Imo State Governor, Emeka Ihedioha, was in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, recently to seek President Muhammadu Buhari’s intervention on the state’s infrastructural decay. He took time out to discuss his plans for boosting the state’s economy, saying that he rather focus on good governance rather than the ‘negative’ actions his predecessor took while in office.
There are reports that your administration uncovered over 250 accounts in various banks operated by the Rochas Okorocha’s administration. Is this a fact?
When I came in, I found out to my shock that there were accounts in the number that was reported in the media and of course so much leakages. We also discovered that the state was not making significant progress from the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The IGR base of the state was very weak and when the IGR base is weak without having a productive economy, which obviously meant that we depended essentially on what came from federal allocation and other agencies being an oil producing state.
It became necessary that we should find a way out and I set up a Financial Advisory Committee to proffer solutions. The Committee recommended that in view of where we are and because of our decision to instil discipline and reduce the level of corruption in the state, we had to introduce the Treasury Single Account, TSA, which is not very ideal in many places.
Apart from that, we are strengthening the Bureau for Public Procurement in the state. If you check through the ranking in ease of doing business, Imo was 34 out of 37 and in several ways we have been lagging behind.
In which areas you are seeking help from the federal government?
We have significant federal roads in Imo and most of them are not receiving attention, so it is important that we begin to rebuild the state in that manner. You won’t believe that in Imo there is nowhere that we have public water running, it is strange to believe but
is the fact. So what do we do? We came in immediately we have tried to activate the water corporation so that we can get water.
So we need the Federal Government support in all facets of the economy. We need support in agriculture because the former administration didn’t take advantage of the federal government’s policies in agriculture. So we are working towards agricultural revolution to ensure that it becomes a source of revenue. We also need government’s support in education, healthcare and building institutions.
Your critics say you are spending more time chasing your predecessor than concentrating on governance.
That is not true. You are reading about the TSA and not about my predecessor; the TSA is an innovation we have introduced and people have applauded it. We are re-fixing government, so I am not talking about the past administration; that is not my focus.
I will tell you for instance the opacity in land administration in my state have made so many stakeholders whose lands were taken away from them to put pressure on me to investigate the previous administration. But I have been pleading with them to take it easy because we want to focus on redesigning the state. For instance, only recently, we restored the autonomy of local government administration and today; local government funds go to local government areas. We collaborate with them to ensure there is also accountability. So we are not focusing on what Okorocha has done, we are focusing on what we are doing.
I want to run a transparent and accountable government that is something significant you have to work upon. If I am restoring public water because I did not meet water on ground, am I going to say I met water when there was no water? Government house Owerri was disconnected from public power supply when I came in, am I supposed to clap?
We don’t lead a government of propaganda. I don’t like talking about my predecessor in office; I am talking about government, I am talking about focus. We are restoring confidence in the entire system. Judicial workers were being owed, was I the one that owed them? Didn’t you hear that they were not paid full salaries? So is it a crime if I say let’s sanitise the entire sector? So you don’t make complaints but I am saying we are moving forward. People spend their time on propaganda but we are not focusing on distractions; we are focusing on our programmes.
So what are your plans to increase your state’s IGR in the face of dwindling resources?
That is why I said that we are introducing Single Treasury Account (TSA) first of all to block the holes. The 260 accounts that you are hearing about what are those accounts for? People claim that those accounts were for basic transactions. You said you are paying and government does not see the money, so we take steps to address it. So it means you don’t support the courage that we are showing to say all monies that you are paying to government must be paid to a particular account and have your receipt, is it a wrong policy?
That is one way you begin to build your IGR without punishing the people; you don’t over tax. Part of what TSA would do for us is to eliminate multiple taxations.
I am sure people in the state will tell you that I retained some appointees of the former governor. Is that not good enough? The Head of Service I met, I am still working with him, the Accountant General I am still working with him. How many people would do that? I am here and the system is running. Except for the permanent secretaries that were unduly promoted over and above where they should be in the week that the last administration was leaving. What we did is to set up a committee to look into it. We brought in a former permanent secretary that has good reputation to investigate and give recommendations. You don’t put level 14 officers above level 17 officers; it kills the morale of other workers. The narrative in Imo is quite wonderful now. So I don’t need to advertise what we are doing.
When we came in, we met dilapidated schools, collapsed bridges and erosion destroying infrastructure.
What is your administration doing to address the problems the oil producing communities in Imo state are passing through?
The deputy governor is from an oil producing community. I had to identify a young man I know has capacity who has been a councilor, local government chairman and a House of Representatives member, and asked him to be my running mate. As I am here, he is acting and complementing my work so they can’t complain. I chose a deputy governor who is active so they can’t talk about non-representation again.
Unlike in the past, the administration of the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Communities (OMPADEC), is completely in the hand of the oil producing areas. We have also taken steps to ensure that we connect power to Oguta.
I also took members of the state house of assembly for a retreat for two days and today; the Assembly is legislating unlike what we had in the past. We are pumping them with executive bills and we have encouraged them to begin to initiate private bills so that the state can begin to function as a democracy again. The Ada Palm estate that we had which was the largest palm estate, we are taking steps now to revamp it. We are not going to dwell in the past. I am sure the narrative you get from Imo under my watch is that of a participatory administration, an administration that is very transparent.
What are you doing about attracting investors to the state?
About bringing investment, first you have to set governance right and restoring confidence back to the system. Earlier I talked about ranking and I said that Imo finished 34 out of 37, which is very bad. So we are restoring confidence. The introduction of TSA alone has shot up the confidence of the people in the administration that we are running. That is one way to say to investors, come in. Now we set up a desk for ease of doing business. Why did we do that? It is so that we can improve on our ranking of ease of doing business.
The feedback we are getting from investors is positive and development partners are beginning to look at Imo again. Before I came in, New Map and all the wonderful programmes of government were not running in our state. You can ask the World Bank, they would tell you. Counterpart funding was not paid but immediately I came in, we started paying all the counterpart funding. We have opened the relationship and we are building confidence in the way people would begin to come back to the state. Imo is now a preferred destination for investors. We would do things devoid of propaganda.
What was the president’s response to your request?
He assured that the federal government would support us in what we are doing. I am certain that by the time we keep doing things the way we are doing; it will enhance the symbiotic relationship between the federal government and the state government.
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